On Friday, over five hundred pounds of marijuana and one hundred and seventy grams of cocaine were discovered in Dangriga. At around six a.m. police carried out an investigation inside three structures, inside which they found a deep freeze and several containers of drugs. Police have since detained Slovakian national, Ladislav Liptak and three Belizean nationals. We spoke with Commissioner of Police Chester Williams for an update on this discovery.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“I don’t know if he has met bail, but as I had said to the media before, we had an investigation involving him. Witnesses came forward, provided statements to the police, which was sufficient for us to be able to get sufficient evidence to charge him, and he was charged.”
Tonight, a woman is fighting for her life in the hospital while attempting to save another. Reports are that on Sunday night a woman was attempting to move an armadillo out of the way of oncoming traffic in Hattieville when she was hit by a car and critically injured. She was subsequently taken to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for treatment. According to Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, police are still investigating the incident.
Reporter
“Is it true that a woman got knocked down because he was trying to save an armadillo?”
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police,
“That’s what I heard. That there was some armadillo that had been knocked down by a vehicle and the lady was going to pick up that armadillo without looking to see the oncoming traffic and she was hit by a vehicle.”
Police are investigating an incident that left one person hospitalized and a house in a state of disrepair. On Saturday, just after nine p.m. police were alerted of an S.U.V. that had driven directly into a house on Central American Boulevard in Belize city. The blue S.U.V. was found lodged under the wooden stilted structure and the driver was taken to the hospital. We spoke with Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, for an update on the situation.
Reporter
“And the investigation of the RTA of the car driving into the house, has anyone been charged for that?”
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, commissioner of Police
“At this time, no police are still looking at that matter.”
Following the U.D.P. chairman’s departure, a group led by Albert Area Representative Tracy Panton proceeded with a meeting of their own, however, Deputy Chairman Alberto August did not take control of the meeting as he should have. That’s according to former party leader Patrick Faber, who says that as an elected official within the party, August should have assumed full control of the N.P.C.
Patrick Faber, Area Representative, Collet
“If the chairman decides [that] he doesn’t want to be part of the meeting, by right, and I accused Mr. August, as well, of not doing his duty today because Mr. August had all right to then say, “You know what, let us continue with the meeting.” If the chairman decides [that] he’s going to exit, that is on him. If the leader decides that he is going to exit, that is on him. They don’t make the National Party Council on their own. I am not sure what the numbers were for today, but I am sure that we had well over a quorum. I am sure that at the time when he exited nobody left with him. I would be surprised if one person left with him when he left, so it was clear that we still had the amount of people in this room to conduct a meeting of the National Party Council. So, if the chairman is not going to do his job, we’ve called on the vice chairman. This is the first strike for the vice chairman, maybe he will reconsider. I was not pleased at all, and I think all of us share that view, with his actions. He should have taken control of the meeting because he is duly elected. The party leader, nor the chairman, can given any punishment to the deputy chairman for doing what he would have done because he is elected by the national convention. Nobody can punish him, nobody can kick him off.”
With the United Democratic Party in utter chaos, will a new leader be able to shore up the support of its followers to mount a formidable challenge against the P.U.P. should general elections be called in the coming months? It’s a question that was put to Tracy Panton who is eyeing the leadership of the beleaguered party.
Tracy Panton, Area Representative, Albert
“No political party puts its standard bearers on a ballot to lose. None. We are not conceding defeat and we will not surrender. We will do the work that we must do to ensure, whether it’s a month, whether it’s six months, whether it’s a year. We are going to do what we need to do on the ground to ensure that the best foot of the United Democratic Party steps forward whenever the general elections are called.”
Reporter
“Tracy, is it your opinion that the chairman of the U.D.P., with the decisions he has made that are not in your favor, that he is holding the party hostage?”
Tracy Panton
“I believe that whenever you do not listen to the voices of the electorate, whenever you do not listen to the voices of the delegates, whenever you do not listen to the voices of the standard bearers and the elected representatives of the party, then you are holding the party hostage.”
Last week, we told you about a letter written by San Ignacio Mayor Earl Trapp demanding the expulsion of Collet Area Representative Patrick Faber for allegedly bringing the U.D.P. into disrepute with statements that were made on social media. A few days after sending the letter to Chairman Mike Peyrefitte, Mayor Trapp made and about-face and rescinded his call for Faber’s dismissal. Here’s Faber’s reaction to that fiasco.
Patrick Faber
Patrick Faber, Area Representative, Collet
“Earl Trapp is my friend, I understand [that] sometimes circumstances push people in the wrong direction. He has rescinded his letter and Earl Trapp and I are fine. I really don’t know, but we were prepared to deal with that today. The people of the National Party Council, majority of the people which we are in regular contact with every day, well until they kicked me out a few days ago, know, and I began receiving support immediately. In fact, the majority of the members of the N.P.C. gave me that assurance as early as a few days afterwards that, “Listen, Faber you have are not going to go anywhere by our hand, you know, so that was not a concern for me at all today.”
Reporters also caught up with Mayor Earl Trapp today in San Ignacio. He was asked about his decision to rescind his initial letter to the party calling for Patrick Faber’s expulsion. Mayor Trapp also commented on the current state of the party, referring to it as a “sad reality”.
Earl Trapp
Earl Trapp, Mayor, SI/SE
“If you read the retraction statement, basically I believe that our party are in shambles. WE are at the point of honestly being destroyed. What I was hoping is that this letter would have sent a strong signal not only to Mr. Faber, but to the thirty-one delegates. We need to look at the bigger picture. The bigger picture, one where we see the party is bigger than us. Another one they have not been seeing eh large number of poor U.D.P. supporters that are suffering. I am trying to show them this. If they fail, then I am not to blame. I am just trying to do my part and my position was I submitted this letter to the chairman and half an hour later it was leaked out and so in that I was disappointed and moving on, one, two three, days later, I began to receive a lot of texts from epopee in support for Faber. People here tell me mayor remember we went to support you and you cannot throw Mr. Patrick under the bus and it is a bigger picture than that. So that is what prompted me to rescind the letter and ask for everybody to come together. But, as we saw what happened on Saturday, I was not there, but it is sad, but it is reality.”
And as Mayor Trapp calls for unity within the United Democratic Party there is adivide within his own council that he addressed during today’s interview. Trapp responded to allegations that the council is paying a total of forty-three thousand dollars for consultancy monthly, while recording ninety-four thousand dollars in monthly losses. Mayor Trapp also addressed the resignation of his Town Administrator, Anthony Cal, who he asserts has ulterior motives. Here is how he puts it.
Earl Trapp
Earl Trapp, Mayor, SI/SE
“A profit and loss balance sheet as a responsible town council we have always posted it on our social media. It is just a mischievous act, and I am sure it is one of my council members that took a snapshot and right after the meeting he was in the administrator’s office discussing the issue and I can tell you that the administrator went through with this about three weeks ago and I told him that the best person to make clarification is the accountant. Why didn’t he take the time to get the accountant to explain it to him. It is simple mathematics, when you are in school it’s common sense. You don’t understand something you go to the teacher and ask the teacher what you don’t understand, and it will allow you to not make false allegations and mischief. What happened there is that what was not spent in March and April was spent in May, nothing wrong with that. We have a contract with a company that provides the license. That is what they are talking about. That is what we pay forty-three thousand to for so many months. There is nothing to hide. We have been one of the most transparent councils and one of the councils in the country of Belize that is more financially stable. It is just false allegations and trying to create mischief. When someone has an ulterior motive or someone has plans to move on in life, the correct or the right thing to do is to do the honorable thing to do is to resign and tell whoever I am resigning and moving on to bigger things.”
Santa Elena is getting a little safer with the inauguration of a new police substation. For months, the twin towns of Santa Elena and San Ignacio have been plagued with rampant gang activity and crime. Along with the substation are twenty-nine officers assigned to the area and a new police vehicle. Today, News Five’s Britney Gordon attended the opening ceremony of the substation to learn how the department will continue to tackle crime in the area. Here’s that story.
Britney Gordon, Reporting
Just over one month ago, residents of the twin towns of Santa Elena and San Ignacio lived in fear that they would be the next victim of a crime. Heated gang rivalries, robberies and murders were just a few of the crimes that residents were forced to endure as police grappled with managing the two communities. Today, residents breathe a sigh of relief as they welcome the newly built police substation in Santa Elena Town. Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams spoke with us about the achievement.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“It has been a work in progress. I know it required a lot of Dedication and commitment. Like the mayor said, they must have the political will and they had the political will to make sure it happened. And as a commission of police, I made sure that whatever needed to have been done was done. And so here we are. And indeed, the mayor is happy. The good citizens of Santa Elena are going to be extremely gratified with this police station while the criminals are not going to be happy. So our job is to make sure that those who are law abiding get satisfactory work in terms of policing and the criminals on the other hand, our job is to make them miserable to make sure that they do not get that room that they may need to be able to perpetrate the criminal acts.”
Twenty-nine officers were pulled from various teams throughout the country to be stationed in Santa Elena. The department aims to have at least one hundred officers in the town as it continues its recruitment process. The station comes at a crucial time for the department, as just a few weeks ago, residents and business owners rallied together to voice their dissatisfaction with the state of crime in the area. Mayor Earl Trapp further emphasized the value of the location to the livelihoods of residents.
Earl Trapp
Earl Trapp, Mayor, Santa Elena & San Ignacio
“This substation will act as a deterrent to criminals and it will make the response time to crime in the area much more prompt. No, so it is very key and important in this area and key to notice that we are remodeling a park in this area and it’s a state of the art park that. I’m sure many children and families will use. So it’s important to have a substation just almost in front of the park.”
Officers will be mobilized with a new police vehicle and two motorcycles. Williams says that the department is working to increase security cameras throughout the area.
Chester Williams
“We’re still working with the chair of BTL. Perhaps we’re going to require the intervention of the prime minister to see if they can get the BTL to be able to provide the fiber for those cameras to be reinstalled inside San Ignacio, Santa Elena. So I know we have N.S.C. meeting today, so I’ll bring that up to the prime minister at NSC today.”
For the residents of Santa Elena, the station is long overdue. Alex Balona, Minister of State and area representative of Cayo Central, says that the department will continue to work with the community to ensure that fighting crime is done as efficient as possible.
Alex Balona, Minister of State
“We have been visiting the different sections of the community with mister Howell Gillet, and we are increasing the awareness and where the community residents, the law-abiding citizens can come out to the community and help the police groups. It is really important, and I appeal to the residents. Like I said earlier today, maybe by the time we’re addressing a situation in Bradley’s Park, there might be something else stirring up in Santa Cruz area. But if we have the neighborhood groups being active, then we can address and assist the police through these groups as well.”
In June 2023, the People’s Constitution Commission introduced volume one of a summary of the Belize Constitution. On Saturday, the P.C.C launched the second volume of the summary. Authored by accomplished attorney Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley, both documents are designed to be user-friendly to offer teachers a tool in the classroom to educate students on the Constitution. The event took place in Punta Gorda during an expo held by the Toledo branch of the Belize National Teachers’ Union. News Five’s Marion Ali was there and filed this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Thirteen months after the launch of volume one of a summary of the Belize Constitution, the second volume is complete. The summary makes available a more concise and easy-to-read version of Belize’s Constitution. Chairman of the People’s Constitution Commission, Anthony Chanona says that volume two includes the functions of three key components of Belize’s democracy.
Anthony Chanona
Anthony Chanona, Chairman, People’s Constitution Commission
“What you will see in Volume Two, Marion is the three functions of the government, the constitutional government that we have in our country: the executive and it explains how that is formed. You will see the legislature; it explains how that is formed. And then you see the check and balance of the judiciary, which checks the laws coming out from the legislature. So it also then leads into how these institutions are financed because ultimately the legislature The executive would make policies for expenditure, the legislature enacts laws but the public purse must afford them, so that’s what you will see in Volume Two.”
The summaries capture the entire constitution, without much detail. And, judging by one example that Chanona shared of an experience with his own granddaughter, the books are having an impact within the school system.
Anthony Chanona
“My youngest grandchild, Madison, called me one night to ask me a question about the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. And I listened to my granddaughter at nine asking me questions. And of course, Grandpa is supposed to know, on how we’re governed. And when I was finished with that phone call, I was not only proud of the teacher who gave this assignment to a nine-year-old primary schooler, but I was thankful to Dickie Bradley and to his efforts because it was telling me, by that phone call, that these books are now in the school system.”
Shantel Ramirez, a standard six teacher at Saint Peter Claver Primary School, says her students gravitated to Volume One, so much so that it created lively discussion among them about Belize’s constitution.
Shantel Ramirez
Shantel Ramirez, Teacher, St. Peter Claver Primary School, PG
“They were really excited about it and so when we started off we introduced the preamble and that really triggered the students into talking about their rights, what they think should happen and how they feel some of their rights had been violated although they have their children’s rights and we have – these are more for adults, but they have a better understanding of what their rights are as Belizean citizens. Understanding the Constitution a lot better than having this huge bulk of information with these huge words that they barely could understand.”
Now that both volumes have been disseminated, Chanona says the Commission will be encouraging teachers to introduce the second summary.
Anthony Chanona
“We will be visiting the schools in Orange Walk, issuing to the BNTU Volume Two to make it part of the outreach of distributing the book. We just don’t want to deliver them; we want to be able to explain what this same conversation is to the teachers across the country, but the distribution will be through the BNTU.”
